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Brandon Ryan (right) worked with twins Austin and Bronsin Ablon to create the Garden of Remembrance and Tolerance behind the Dallas Holocaust Museum-Center for Education and Tolerance

One of the best parts of covering families and kids is meeting wonderful families and kids who make this world a better place. I loved learning about Greenhill School junior Brandon A. Ryan for the story I did on five top draws for kids in local museums. It got to me, too, that Brandon, who says he had no personal relationship with the Holocaust, was just 15 when he started on his Eagle Scout project to construct the small but moving Garden of Remembrance and Tolerance outside the Dallas Holocaust Museum-Center for Education and Tolerance. Fifteen, after all, was the age that Anne Frank was when she died in a Nazi concentration camp. The museum has a moving display of 71 pictures from the personal collection of Anne’s father on display on the inside of the museum and you can contemplate that pathos of promising lives cut short outside on a bench that Brandon arranged to have in his garden, which is always open and always free.

Brandon Ryan as his school mascot, Hugo the Hornet, with young cheerleader Campbell Davis.

Brandon had a lot of wonderful help, particularly from then Greenhill classmates twins Austin and Bronsin Ablon who are now 19 and in college. The Ablon brothers designed, created and installed a steel sculpture called Coming Together which stands at the heart of the garden. I am also happy to report that Brandon, now 17, also knows how to have fun. He plays baseball and soccer and has an ongoing role as Hugo the Hornet, his school mascot, which delights the little kids who attend the games.

Here’s a brief Q and A I did with Brandon:

What was your inspiration?
I’ve grown up pretty much my whole life at Greenhill School. I’ve been nurtured and sheltered in a community that is very accepting of all beliefs and cultures. I am an Irish Catholic and have no familial connection to the Holocaust. I have grown up at school with many Jews, many of have very close connection to the Holocaust, who have felt very strongly about it. Going back to my heritage, I have a close connection to another situation of oppression from the same time period. My great grandfather was an officer in the Irish revolution and much of my family was involved in the liberation of Ireland. When I got offered the job by the president of the Dallas Holocaust Museum, at the time Alice Murray, it was a very easy choice to accept the responsibility. There are so many people I care about who were affected by the Holocaust and that, coupled with my families’ own struggle for freedom and equality, was my inspiration.

How do you feel about the project?
I am so happy to have had the opportunity to accomplish something so rewarding. Alongside what I said before about my inspiration, I will not neglect that I was very much looking for a challenge when I was searching for Eagle Scout projects. I did not want to just build another park bench or refurbish a swing set, as admirable and challenging as those tasks may be. I wanted to test myself and my ability to make something great. I accepted the offer at Alice Murray’s birthday party, which I was attending with my mother, a close friend of Ms. Murray’s, with little hesitation. I had no idea I was beginning a nine-month ordeal, and I had no idea how massive the final product would be. Now I am just happy that I was given the opportunity, and that I had so much support from Ms. Murray, the Dallas Holocaust Museum, my friends, and my family.

What surprised you most?
What surprised me most was how difficult it is to create something to benefit the city (and also how much dirt it takes to fill in a 20 by 40 foot piece of land). I had to get my proposal passed through the city Landmark Commission, because of the park’s location in the Historic West End, and through Dallas Building Inspection. Both of these were especially tough for a 15-year-old who had no personal means of transportation besides his mother and whose only available time to meet with government agencies was during his lunch break. After weeks of filling out and submitting paperwork and meeting with many city planners, I had to propose the project to a neighborhood committee, which would decide whether the park would benefit the community. The committee was of eight people, and at one point three of the people were downright opposed to the idea, the main reason being that I was “an inexperienced kid who would probably do a bad job”. It was very surprising for me to see just how much red tape there is to do the simplest of reconstructions.

What was the most challenging part?
As I mentioned before, it is tough to deal with government agencies and professional businesses when all you have going for you is a plan on paper and a handful of future donors. Most of the time I was not taken seriously or I was outright denied. Also, since the trees were planted in late July, they had to be hand watered every day for about a month, and that summer set heat records. Thankfully the next door architecture company, Corgan, was generous enough to allow me and the Holocaust Museum to use their water supply for our use.

What was the high point?
The high point was definitely at the end of the third work day. From the beginning, I had tried to time the project so that the work days would be during the spring or late winter. Since I had no idea what I was getting into when I made that plan, the work days kept getting pushed and pushed until they were literally in the hottest part of the year. The work days took place in late July. By the end of the third work day,the asphalt had been removed, the granite had been poured, the trees had been planted, and I had the darkest tan in my whole life. The garden, save the artwork, was complete. In the 100+ degree heat, I finally saw the planning since the new year become a reality. I could not believe the fact that I had actually organized the construction of a garden and that I was able to do it with so many of my best friends.